Junk Food Is as Dangerous as Cigarettes

Certain deleterious health effects of smoking may appear faster, but junk food is just as toxic to your body, as well as addictive (yes, I'm talking about you, sugar).

By now, we all know the dangers of cigarettes to the smoker: respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease, infertility, cancer. And we know non-smokers suffer, too, as second-hand smoke similarly damages the health of its victims. Smoking around babies and children causes them to suffer respiratory malfunctions (such as asthma), heart malfunctions and worse (SIDS). Smoking during pregnancy will damage or even kill a woman's baby.

But is feeding children junk food any less a form of child abuse than forcing them to breathe toxic second-hand smoke? Junk food consumed by mom damages baby's development in utero and impacts long-term physical and mental health. Consuming junk food seriously damages children's physical and neurological development and causes numerous health malfunctions, illness and diseases. Of course, junk food damages adult bodies, too.

The negative health impacts resulting from the ingestion of said "foods" include:

Liver disease

Obesity

Heart disease/Stroke

Diabetes

Immune suppression

Mood Disorders

Infertility/Endocrine disorders

Respiratory disease

Neurological malfunctions

Premature aging

Cancer

You are what you eat. Simple truth. It cannot be overstated. The engine only runs as well as the fuel you put in it. We could perform study after study and discourse in debate after debate, but is that really needful? We intuitively know and understand that what we put in our bodies either makes us ill or well. We see the age in which we live, the food stuffs available, the toxins ubiquitous in our environment, food and pharmaceuticals...we see the continuing rates of chronic illness in our culture. It doesn't take degrees and certifications to understand such a blatant and simple truth. Garbage in, garbage out. Junk food maims and then it kills.

Here are some links for further study, book recommendations and an informative video on toxic sugar. And, to end on a lighter note, a satirical look at junk food by comedian Tim Hawkins: